


And I Get The Feeling That You’ll Never Need Me Again

by pennilesspoet



Series: Snap Verse [4]
Category: Schitt's Creek
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Post-Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-15 01:02:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28680054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pennilesspoet/pseuds/pennilesspoet
Summary: David and Patrick work to save their marriage.
Relationships: Patrick Brewer/David Rose, Patrick Brewer/Original Male Character(s)
Series: Snap Verse [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1939390
Comments: 13
Kudos: 88





	And I Get The Feeling That You’ll Never Need Me Again

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! I hope some folks might still have interest in this 'verse. I struggled a LOT with this story. There are actually about four versions of it sitting in my drafts, to be honest. (Between my own health issues and the general state of the world, it truly is a wonder that I even got this far!)
> 
> It is very helpful to read at least the first two parts of this series before delving in here.

_“Babe, staring at the tomato plant isn’t going to make it grow faster.”_

_“Very funny,” David turns toward Patrick with a half-hearted glare._

_“In the meantime, I brought home some tomatoes from the store - you know, to hold us over until your plant sprouts,” Patrick smirks and holds up his canvas Rose Apothecary bag._

_“You think you’re funny, but really, you’re just--”_

_“David?” Patrick drops the bag of tomatoes, and runs out into the yard. By the time he reaches his husband, there is nothing but wisps of ash fluttering around him._

_“David!”_

Patrick sits up with a gasp, his heart racing and tears pooling in his eyes. The visceral terror from the nightmare begins to fade, but the memory of that moment is as clear as it was five years ago. He looks across the bed at David, still soundly sleeping (thanks to the pills David thinks Patrick doesn’t know about) and it is only then that Patrick is able to take a breath of relief. Wiping the moisture from his eyes, Patrick lays back down, curling himself around David, in an attempt to stave off the shadows for the rest of the night.

**~~@~~**

“Sorry I’m late,” Stevie says breathlessly. She plops her bag down and settles into the booth. Across from her, David shrugs and continues to fidget with his gold engagement rings.

“How are you?” Stevie asks. She can see, from the dark circles under her friend’s eyes and the way he is holding himself the true answer to that question.

“I’m fine,” David shrugs. His hands unfold and refold, and he’s now spinning his wedding band.

“You don’t look ‘fine’,” Stevie replies flatly. 

David glares at her, but the effort is half-hearted at best. Sighing, she reaches across the table and pokes gently at his arm.

“Talk.”

“What do you want me to say? Patrick and I are-” David cuts himself off, and bites his lower lip.

“You’re what?”

“Fine? But also. Also _not_ fine. Patrick is...not the person I remember.”

“Well, David he-”

“I know, okay! I know that it was...different, for all of you. I know that he went through a lot, and I am trying to understand that, but I just,” David pauses to take a shaky breath, “I don’t know how to talk to him anymore.”

“David, he’s still the same person, deep down. He just - you both just need some time, you know?”

“Maybe,” David rasps. He gazes around the room, avoiding Stevie’s eyes, “I know he loves me, and I know that he’s glad I’m back, but - “

“I think ‘glad’ might be an understatement,” Stevie mutters. Off of David’s glare, she shrugs. “You weren’t here. You didn’t see what he was like.”

“You’re right. I wasn’t here. And I can’t help feeling like I’ve been...dropped into someone else’s life”

“David-”

“My house doesn’t feel like _my_ home. My husband doesn’t act like _my_ husband. Not the one I know, anyway. I feel like at any moment, all of it could just go away. That _Ben_ is going to walk through that front door, and tell me that I don’t belong there anymore.”

“Have you talked to Patrick about any of this?”

“Of course I haven’t,” David scoffs sadly.

“Why not?”

“I know he needs time to...to heal. I don’t want to be a burden.”

“You’re not a burden, David, you’re his husband,” Stevie grasps David’s hand to force him to look at her, “You have to talk to him about this!”

“I know I just,” David sighs. “I don’t know what I’ll do if he tells me he doesn’t want me anymore.”

**~~@~~**

“You haven’t touched your sandwich,” Ben says with a raised eyebrow. Getting Patrick to eat regularly had always been an issue between them. Patrick must recall this as well, because he offers a crooked smile and pokes at his sandwich half-heartedly.

“What’s going on?” Ben makes a show of taking a large bite of his pasta.

“How are you and Zachary...settling back into everything?”

“It’s going okay. I think he is still having a hard time wrapping his mind around the fact that he lost five years of his life. He rarely sleeps through the night, but then, neither do I,” Ben let’s the silence between them stretch for a moment, watching as Patrick continues to shift food around on his plate. “I’m guessing things are not settling well for you and David.”

Patrick sighs and sits back in his seat. “I don’t know how to heal this...this rift between us. It’s not that we are fighting, it - it’s like we’re strangers, or roommates, instead of husbands.”

“I keep having these nightmares. Sometimes it’s just the memory of the day he disappeared, playing on a constant loop in my head until I finally startle myself awake. But worse are the dreams that none of this is real. That I wake up, and it’s you in bed next to me, and David never came back,” Patrick sniffs and runs his hand over his face in an effort to hide away his tears.

“But he did come back. And you want to be able to live your life as though none of this ever happened. Pick up where you left off five years ago.”

“Yeah. Yeah, exactly,” Patrick looks up at Ben pleadingly, “but I don’t know how to do that.”

“You can’t. Patrick,” Ben sighs and gently places his fork onto his plate. He folds his hand and rests his chin on his hands.

“I miss you. Every day. And I sometimes think that it would all be so much easier to be with someone who knows how it felt to lose everything. But then I look at my husband, and I think about how much it hurt to not have him here. And I just - I remember thinking that I‘d do anything to have him back. So yeah, it’s going to be hard. And maybe for a while it’s going to be terrible. But I still love him. And I want to fight for us.”

Patrick is looking at his own hands, folded in his lap, but Ben can see the tears dripping from his face before he has a chance to wipe them away.

“I think. I think I needed to hear that,” Patrick whispers, “Thank you, Ben.”

“Eat your sandwich, Patrick,” Ben replies with a warm smile.

**~~@~~**

David is straightening their wedding photos when Patrick comes home. The air in the house is as tense as it was when Patrick left this morning, but when David looks at him, he looks more resigned than angry.

“How’s Ben,” David asks flatly.

“Fine. He gave me some pretty good advice, actually. Can we - can we talk?”

David turns away from the photos, and crosses the room, before curling up at the far end of the sofa. Patrick knows that this is David broadcasting that he doesn’t want to be touched, so he sits at the opposite end of the sofa and leans forward, his elbows on his knees.

“I - I’m sorry. I know that this has all been really hard on you, and I know I haven’t been a very good husband these past few weeks.”

“Patrick - “

“Let me just finish? I think that maybe we both wanted everything - our relationship - to be what it was before you disappeared. But those people - those newlyweds, who were still relishing a new marriage and navigating home ownership for the first time. The husbands who couldn’t keep their hands off of one another, and never saw any of this coming - those people don’t exist anymore.”

“I wish I could be the person you want me to be, David. I wish I could fix this. I promised that I would make you happy and I feel like I don’t know how to do that anymore,” Patrick takes a shaky breath and drops his face into his hands.

“I’m sorry too. I just. I want everything to be how it was. Before. I...I feel like I don’t belong in this house, and that any minute, Ben is going to come back, and you’re going to realize how much easier it would be-”

“David,” Patrick turns, and places a warm hand on David’s shoulder, “I don’t want you to feel like this. I want you to understand that I’m in this, for the long haul. I will work to make this right again, I just,” Patrick sighs and moves to pull his hand away, but David captures it in his before he can.

“I’m scared. I’m scared that it’s going to happen again. I don’t know if I could survive it a second time.”

With a sob, David pulls Patrick toward him, and they collapse into each other somewhere in the center of the sofa. 

“It’s not going to happen again. You read the same articles I did. They killed the guy who did it the first time.”

“My nightmares aren’t rational, David,” Patrick whispers, but there is a small smile on his face. He curls into David and wraps his arms around him.

“So we are both letting our fears keep us from moving forward,” David says into Patrick’s hair.

“Our therapist will be so happy to hear about this breakthrough,” Patrick replies dryly. After a moment, Patrick pulls away to look up at his husband.

“Do you want to move? We could start over, in a new house, one that we settle into together.”

“I think...no. No, I think I just need to, uh, redecorate a little,” David replies with a crooked grin, "And maybe I just need to know that it's me you really want."

"Always, David," Patrick rasps and kisses David softly. "It's always been you."

**~~@~~**

The sun is setting, and the air outside is beginning to cool down. David finishes making his tea, then peers back outside. Patrick is still standing in the backyard, near the very spot where David disappeared all those years ago. David slides open the glass door, then picks up their teas before heading out to see what his husband is looking at.

“Honey? It’s getting cold out here,” David states as he approaches. 

“Look,” Patrick says softly as he points at the plant in front of him.

The plant is small, but the heady, earthy scent is unmistakable. There, hanging off of one of the vines is a small, green tomato.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Please let me know what you think.


End file.
